36 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL,, 



Dbvoted to Field and Aquatic Sfortb, Practical Natural Hibtoby, 



iFuttl OlILTUKB, THi PROTECTION OP UAItE.PliKSKIlVATlON OK FORESTS, 



Ajro rnn Inculcation in Men and Woken of a healthy iktkhkst 

 m Oai-DOOB Kbokbatios and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



Surest mi ^tnaaj fflublishiuQ <&om$<it{g f 



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NEW YOKE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1877. 



To Correspondents, 



All communications whatever, whether relating to onslnesB or literary 

 correspondence, mast lie addressed to The Forest and Stream Ptjb 

 IiIBh'inq Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



All conimnnicationsintended for publication must be accompanied with 

 real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 

 objection be made. No anonymouB contributions will be regaraed. 



Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited 



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor ns with brief 

 notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of UBefnl and reliable information between gentle- 

 men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 

 find our columns a uusirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base useB whicn always 

 tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 

 may not be read with propriety in the home circle 



We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mall service, If 

 money remitted to ns is lost. 



Advertisements should he sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 



{3?~ Trada supplied by American News Company. 

 CHARLES HALLOCK, 



Editor and Business Manager. 



Snow in Warm Latitudes. — We are informed by cor- 

 respondents of ours who are trapping in the Southwest, that, 

 during the extraordinary cold weather in the middle of 

 last January and the wide prevalence of snow storms over 

 the country, the snow iD some parts of Mississippi laid at 

 an even depth of fifteen inches; in Shreveport and Monroe, 

 Louisiania, and in Dallas and other parts in Texas it re- 

 mained on the ground several days at a depth of six to ten 

 inches on a level. 



Blooming Grove Park. — The annual dinner and ladies 

 reception of the Blooming Grove Park Association given 

 at the Hoffman House on Tuesday evening of last week, 

 was one of the most agreeable affairs in which it has been 

 our fortune to participate. The dinner itself was excellent, 

 thanks to Mr. Reid, one of the proprietors of the Hoffman, 

 and who is a member of the Association. After dinner 

 Col. Bruce made an address in which he gave an account 

 of the progress of matters at the Park. He was followed 

 by Judge Gildersleeve, who gave an amusing account of 

 some of his experiences on the Bench. But ihe most 

 felicitous speech of the evening was that by our friend 

 Mr. John Mullaly, who swings figures of speecii witli the 

 same gracefulness with which ho casts ally. After some 

 music by Mr. Pattison and the reading of the following 

 letter from the the Grand Duke Alexis, the company ad- 

 journed to the parlors when dancing was kept up until a 

 late hour. 



R T. Frigate Syetlana, ) 

 Norfolk, Va., Eeb. 7, 1877. f 

 John Avery, Ezq-, President of tk-e Blooming Grove Park, As- 

 sociation: 



Sia. — The Grand Duke Alexis desires me to express to 

 you His Highnesses thanks for the kind invitation to use 

 your park, and his regrets that he cannot be present at the 

 reception on February 13th. Baron N. Schilling. 



— We have received from Messrs. Holberton & Beemer, 

 of the Sportsmen's Empoiium, a very handy little article in 

 the shape of a lock cork, made of box-wood and rubber. 

 By putting this cork into the bottle and giving two or three 

 turns to the key, the contents are safe. 



>•*•• 



— The British Court of Exchequer has decided that in a 

 prosecution of parties for cutting cock's combs there 

 should have been a conviction, as the act complained of 

 was to enable the birds to be used for cock-fighting, which 

 U illegal. 



NOTES ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF 

 GAME 



THE breeding habits of all animals possess for the nat- 

 uralist the greatest interest, and when these habits 

 in game animals are under discussion this interest is extend- 

 ed to a far larger class in our land, the true sportsmen. It 

 will readily be seen lhat tho accurate and detailed infor- 

 mation on this head which careful observations of our do- 

 mestic animals furnishes is not to be obtained concerning 

 the ferce natural, and that, given the time at which two in- 

 dividuals of any species pair, the period during which 

 the female carries her young can be approximately deter- 

 mined only by noting the time at which other females of 

 the same species give birth to their offspring. Fortunately, 

 however, the habits of wild animals are very regular in 

 this regard, thus differing widely from those of domestica- 

 ted species in which all the natural conditions of life are 

 unsettled and altered, 



In almost all birds and mammals the pairing takes place 

 at about the same time each year, in the same latitude, 

 and lasts just about so long; rarely more than a mouth. 

 At this season the habits of all animals undergo a great 

 change, and even those which are ordinarily the most timid 

 and watchful become more bold, and in many cases seem 

 almost to disregard the presence of their great enemy, 

 man. ll IB at this season, when their horns are hard and 

 strong, that the various species of the deer family have 

 their battles, and sometimes serious ones, and it is then 

 that the elk, the moose, or even the common deer will, when 

 wounded or cornered, attack their pursuer with a fury 

 and a quickness which sometimes makes even the boldest 

 hunter long to be safely astride the branch of a moderilely 

 large tree. 



The length of time occupied in the hatching of a set of 

 eggs can of course, under favorable circumstances, bo de- 

 termined, as nothing more is required than careful obser 

 vations extended over a few weeks. Yet it is unusual to 

 see slated, even in the best works on ornithology, the exact 

 number of dayB during which any bird sits on her eggs. 

 Such a variety of circumstances oppose themselves, even 

 to the most persevering observer, that our knowledge of 

 this and kindred points is sadly defective. 



We have prepared the following table, which gives the 

 pairing season, and the time at which the young are born 

 for some of our larger game animals. In its preparation 

 we have made use of all the material at our command, de- 

 pending in some cases on the standard work' on iN'orlh 

 American mammals, while in others we have relied on the 

 testimony of intelligent and trustworthy men, who have 

 spent their lives in the wilderness, and whose opportunities 

 for observation have been the best possible. Our field 

 notes, too, accumulated during half a dozen seasons' work 

 on the plains and In the mountains of the west, have fur. 

 nished some evidence. The table is believed to be approx- 

 imately correct for this continent between Ihe 43d and -tilth 

 parallel:— 



Name. 



Hut in 



Moose (.Alee ume-\ 



ni.ana) Sept 



Caribou (Satigifeii 



':,-.,:] < ,'f 



Elk (Cervtts ca>ia-\ 

 denii/) Sept 



Black-tall or mule| 

 deer ((7. »MKro-|Latter part 

 lis) of Oot 



Virginia or white- 

 tailed deer (C. 

 virglnianus) — 



Antelope (AntUo 



May Generally two 



Biilyj. 



i.Mt.Sueep 

 . . . montatia). 



i>llffllo (BOS 



ricanus) . . . 



__,ly 



Nov 



Last of Oct. 

 ml 11 



Ko- 



Voui 



No. of young. 



15th to 20 May 

 Last of March. 

 About April 10. 



Ordinarily two. 



Two or even tare 



Two. 

 One. 

 One. 



DISCOVERY OF A BURIAL PLACE OF 

 NEOLITHIC AGE IN FRANCE. 



IN a recent number of La, Nature an account is given of 

 the discovery of an ancient Burial Place, in the com- 

 mune of Breze in Anjou, which evidently belongs to the 

 earliest portion of the age of Polished Stone, and which 

 presents in many respects an exceptional interest to the 

 archaeologist. 



The mode of burial here employed was somewhat differ- 

 ent from the oae ordinarily met with iu graves of the 

 neolithic period. A ditch had been dug in Ihe argillace- 

 ous marl, the bottom being a stratum of chalk subjacent to 

 the marl, and the opening was covered witli slabs of stone 

 which we shall notice more particularly farther on. This 

 ditch irregularly ovoid in shape had a length of thirteen 

 feet four inches, and a least width of four feet eight inches. 



Its depth was about twenty-two inches. It contained a 

 number of bones heaped together without any order or ar- 

 rangement, among which were found a cranium in a good 

 state of nreservation, some long bones, vertebite, innomin- 

 ate bones, &C. With the bones were found various imple- 

 ments of flint, deer horn, and pottery, all of which are 

 characteristic of the age of Polished Stone, 



The articles of flint are not truly polished, but for Ihe 

 most part they bear evidence of careful reworking, which 

 leaves ns doubt as to their neolithic age. One of these is a 

 beautiful flake in the shapp of a blade, which measures 

 nearly eleven inches in length by a little over two in grcal- 

 est breadth, the edges of which are delicately worked into 

 a number of saw like proiuiuoes- A very finely worked 

 arrowhead, some knives and some scrapers are also no- 

 ticeable for their beauty. With these implements, which 

 show no incou.-hletable skill iu ihe working of flint, wtuc 



found a large number of others simply chipped, or at most 

 bearing marks of very rude workmanship. But one stone 

 implement was found which was truly polished; this is a 

 small axe, not of flint, but sf green stone, and hard enough 

 to be a diorite. This little relic presents a very elOPe re- 

 semblance to the ornaments which are so often found in the 

 dolmens, with this difference that there is no hole drilled 

 through the thick end. The implements of deer horn 

 were few in number, and probably served as handles for 

 tools, perhapB hammers; they are all perforated near the 

 middle. The vases of pottery, of which some few were 

 perfect, we not the least interesting of the objects here dis- 

 covered. They were all placed in the ditch mouth downward. 

 The material of which they are formed is good, and in the 

 broken fragments nothing was seen of the debris of lime or 

 of shells so often made use of in pottery of this period to 

 give body to the mass of the clay. The manufacture of ihesc 

 articles, however, is altogether primitive, and it is certain 

 that the potters wheel was not used. The surfaces both 

 within and without are of a grayish brown color and they 

 show none of Ihe redness of clay vessels that have been 

 more or less burnt; it is most probable that they were 

 simply dried in the sun. 



The vessels found at Breze almost all show the imprint 

 of fingers, the form is very coarse and the thickness of the 

 walls irregular; there are none which show a true bonier 

 about the aperture, or indeed, any ornamentation what- 

 ever; The most primitive are merely somewhat contracted 

 below. No trace of Ihe handles are seen in these and the 

 form is scarcely symmetrical. Others are more graceful in 

 form, the contraction at the base is well marked and near 

 the upper part two or four small protuberances arc seen, 

 which can only be rudimentary handles, uud which may 

 have served to suspend (he vase. On a third typo of vej- 

 sel, also without ornamentation, a large but very widely 

 formed haudlc is to be seen on one side. This lust is an 

 uncommon style of vase, and in shape reminds Us some- 

 what of the soapstone lamps employed by the Esquimaux. 

 Such are briefly the different Objects found iu this grave. 

 The implements of flint and of deer horn, as well as those 

 of pottery, all show that the tomb at Biezo belongs to the 

 earliest period of tho neolithic age. These implements are 

 certainly of gteat interest, for it is not often lhat such tine 

 and large lliut blades are found as the one mentioned above, 

 and then too, Ihe character of the pottery discovered here 

 is quite rare. But this burial place is interesting on another 

 account; we refer to the slabs of limestone which cover 

 the grave, and which were mentioned above. These slabs 

 are rough on the side which is iu contact With the earth, 

 which covers Ihe tomb, but on the other which face3 ihe 

 objects contained in the excavation they are worked. The 

 embellishment consists of rude drawing deeply engraved 

 and representing figures more or less geometrical, > 

 angles, triangles, &e. Nothing similar so far as wc kutov 

 has hitherto been noticed. 



Here then is a fresh discovery in regard to the early men 

 which must be added to the others which have recently 

 followed one another so rapidly in France. The existence 

 of a numerous population, spread over the whole of Fiance 

 from the commencement of the age of Polished Si 

 not to-day be doubted, and the man of this period knew 

 how to fashion, besides ihe implements of flint, the pot- 

 tery of which we have just seen such rudimentary exam- 

 ples. If the man of the Neolithic Period at Breze did not 

 yet ornament his earthern vessels as he did a lillie later, 

 he possessed none the less that artistic sentiment which we 

 meet with among the most primitive peoples, as is shown by 

 the stones which covered Ihe sepulchre of which we have 

 just spoken. 



GAME PROTECTION. 



New Yokk.— Residents in the vicinity of Lake George 

 complain that an imioense amount of illegal fishing with 

 spears, nets and grappling hooks is being done in the lake. 

 We learn from the Sandy Hill Eerald that, an effi 

 be made to bring the offenders to justice, the possession of 

 Ihe above implements by certain parties being notorious. 



■'Massachusetts. — The members of the Worcester Sport- 

 ing Club are doing good work in Ihe preservation of quail. 

 Strange to say they have brought the railroad to their as- 

 sistance. The Worcester Press says: "It is noticed that 

 the birds on Ihe line of the Boston and Albany Railroad 

 west of here have become so attached to Engineer Fenner 

 that they have stationed themselves on ihe railroad bank 

 and quietly waited for the coming of his train and the 

 grain which was thrown from his cab window. Iu this 

 way the club has fed four bevies of quail between here aud 

 Westboro, three between here and Rochdale, three in 

 Shrewsbury and a number in the country about, and has 

 been instrumental in preserving what promises to furnish 

 game in plenty for the. sportsmen next fall." The club is 

 also prosecuting vigorously infractions of tkegarj 

 and several pot hunters have been stopped in thei 

 killing of game. 



The sportsmen of Northampton, Mass., met on Thurs- 

 day evening, Feb. 151 h, and organized a club to bo known 

 as the N onotuck Game Club, for the protection of nth and 

 game in Hampshire county. The following officers were 

 chosen: President, A. P. Feck; Vice Presidents, E. O. 

 Damon and Geu. Otis; Secretary, G. W. Crittenden; Tie ,» 

 niei, Oftstten L. Warren. The club has been organized 

 under very favorable circumstances; it alri I. ■ 

 :;n members. They will at once proceed to stock some of 

 the most favorite ponds in the vicinity, and an eilori will 



